We're currently using Amanda but it isn't very reliable and last night just didn't backup a load of stuff for no obvious reason - and not for the first time.

We can't trust our data to luck like this.

As far as I can tell, backup software for Unix is divided into two groups: 1: expensive; 2: useless.

I'm not averse to paying a reasonable cost for good software but I need something urgently.

Please, guys, how about a good, detailed comparison of the field of backup software? And I don't mean like the recent comparison between MySQL and Postgress which was clearly rattled off while taking a crap on the day of publication. It was utterly useless.

Other than that, I love the mag and generally read it virtually from cover to cover.

At work and with karoshi we use tar onto a different server allocated within a different building(backed up over the network nighting with 3 full versions kept and incrementals) . I haven't had it gone wrong ....urmmm...ever...and in a school regular ""miss my work as just...urmm disappeared""... is common place!!

I looked at my back issues and remembered reading the backup comparisons, and then realised why it was hard to remember - I thought it was a poor article (similar to the MySQL/Postgres comparison).

The best GPL'd backup/disaster recovery software I have found in over 7 years of using various Linux distros is Mondo Rescue even though I have to do a complicated install routine for earlier versions on SuSE. This seems to have been fixed - I'm downloading the latest ISO now.

So I'll agree it is time to review some backup software - even if it is only Mondo Rescue in the "Hotpicks" section.

ollie wrote:The best GPL'd backup/disaster recovery software I have found in over 7 years of using various Linux distros is Mondo Rescue even though I have to do a complicated install routine for earlier versions on SuSE.

Thanks for the info on Mondo Rescue. I checked out the site and found that someone is having problems on SuSE 9.3 on a dual processor system. Guess what I want to run it on

overflow wrote:Unfortunately, though, the backup review is another lightweight 'roundup' with very little meat. Of the six programs reviewed, only two can write to tape!

That wasn't the context of the review. Most users want to backup to HD or optical discs, very few have tapeloaders. The article wasn't aimed at the enterprise user.

overflow wrote:I like the mag, I really do, but these software comparisons need some proper effort otherwise they are just a complete waste of paper.

I trashed a 250GB SATA disk while writing the review and had to use the software in anger to restore my data. Is that not proper effort?

A round up is just that. It is not a detailed review of every piece of software available, that would fill the magazine. The SQL piece was different in that it was really two separate reviews of competing products.

Everyone has different requirements for backups, it is impossible to write an article that says "use this". All we can do is highlight some alternatives so that you are better able to evaluate them for yourself.

Personally, I use rdiff-backup over a network to make hourly backups of some directories and daily backups of the rest, combined with a weekly script that creates squashfs filesystems of the backups and writes them to bootable DVD images.

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." (Albert Einstein)

Hi! Didn't mean to upset the help but I think you realy need to decide who your target audience is. Not many home users need a database system. If you review databases you have to expect some enterprise interest.

Maybe the backup roundup should have been headed 'desktop backup roundup'? For even a small business where we have to backup about 40GB a day, it didn't really cover useful ground.

Still, that just means there's scope for an enterprise backup roundup?

I wasn't commenting on the target for the database reviews, only for the backup roundup.

40GB a day is not small, although I used to find myself dealing with getting on for half that some days, using software covered in the roundup. However, backing up that sort of volume with tape requires seriously expensive hardware, so it is a very specialised application. If you are going to spend thousands on backup hardware, it is probably best to make your own evaluation of the most suitable software.

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." (Albert Einstein)